AOAC SSA Annual Meeting - Day 2

Dr. Eve Christine Gadzikwa is a Zimbabwean businesswoman, leader, mentor, philanthropist and an author. She is currently the Director General and Secretary to the Standards Association of Zimbabwe and 13th President of AU standards body, the African Organisation for Standardisation.

Director Quality Assurance and Inspection

Scott was appointed as the Senior Director of the AOAC Research Institute on July 1, 2018. He is responsible for daily management of and business development for the AOAC Research Institute. Scott served as the Chief Science Officer from 2009 until June 2018. In this capacity, he served as the technical lead for many AOAC projects. Scott led the writing and development of Appendix F in the Official Methods of Analysis of AOAC INTERNATIONAL that describes validation requirements and the development of Standard Method Performance Requirements. Before joining AOAC, he worked for 10 years as the Operations Manager for an in-vitro diagnostic manufacturer making medical test kits such as Strep tests and specialized bacterial culture media. Scott holds a B.S. in Microbiology (1978) and a M.S. in Biotechnology Management (1994) from the University of Maryland.

Karim is a published research biochemist involved in assay development and validation. He completed his doctoral work at the Biomedical Biotechnology Research Unit (RU) on the regulation of gene expression in breast cancer. Before this, he completed an MSc on the development and commercialisation of fermentation biotechnologies.

His achievements include scholarships from the National Research Foundation, and full academic honours from Rhodes University. He is also a successful entrepreneur, having initiated or been involved in a number of innovative start-ups, including South Africa’s first bottled fermented mead.

Karim formerly managed the technical development of agricultural antibiotic replacements, and has applied the latest molecular research tools in solving unique problems. He has taught biochemical theory and techniques at university level, and has worked professionally with both public and private STEM-sector actors, both in South Africa and overseas.

In particular, Karim offers industry a skillset for solving unique and novel problems, and for the development of innovative and effective analytical methods.

When he’s not in the lab, Karim likes to explore, encounter new ideas, and generally try new things.

Development and Implementation of Marketing Strategy and Plans for Food, Dietary Supplements, Environmental and Cannabis Markets | Technical Leadership and Business Development | Content Marketing and Demand Generation | Sales and Customer Training | Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry based Solutions | Project and People Management | Market Trends and Business Analytics | Building KOL Network and Scientific Collaborations | ISO 17025 Regulatory Compliance | Building Lab Capacity and Capabilities | Method Development and Validation

Director of Research and Development at Pharmavite, LLC (NatureMade). Dedicated leader with over 10 years of experience in the dietary supplement industry. Demonstrated leadership in analytical methods, product stability and Quality.

veteran senior manager in corporate communications and regulatory affairs, with 35 years’ experience both in Agency and In House within major multinational corporations, including 17 years at Nestlé. In that capacity, he was instrumental in developing the company’s Creating Shared Value approach to its role in society. He assembled, prepared, published and publicised 11 increasingly sophisticated Creating Shared Value reports to stakeholders; and socialised the CSV Concept internally (to Chairman and CEO level) and externally through six increasingly high-profile CSV Fora, attracting more than 300 worldwide delegates, including (for the last three editions) serving Heads of State or Prime Ministers; and generating significant owned, earned and paid echo across traditional and new media. Most recently, he headed the company’s Regulatory and Scientific Affairs teams in Sub Saharan Africa, based at its Research Centre in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Part of his role in this capacity was to establish relations with continental African institutions and other key stakeholders, up to and including Commissioner level at the African Union, VP level at the African Development Bank among others. In this context he initiated a significant partnership between the African Green Revolution Alliance (AGRA) and Nestlè’s Central and West African market for farmer development in Nigeria and Ghana. He also worked with the AGRA team to bring senior Nestlé experts to speak at the African Green Revolution Forum. Other successful partnership activity was carried out with the African Union, the African Development Bank and GIZ. Fluent in English, French and German and a graduate of University College London, John is married with one daughter. His wife, Nsa, is Nigerian and, in addition to their five years‘ spent in Abidjan and John’s role representing Nestlé throughout Africa, John and Nsa have spent significant time visiting extended family in Nigeria and beyond, learning first hand of the challenges and opportunities that face African rural communities on a daily basis.

Dr. Hermogene Nsengimana, since 2012 to date, is the Secretary General of the African Organisation for Standardisation, ARSO, an intergovernmental Organisation which was formed by the African Union (AU, formerly OAU) and Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and with a membership of 38 African countries. Recruited by the ARSO Council, the Administrative arm of the Organisation, Dr Hermogene Nsengimana began his Career with ARSO in 2012. Steering ARSO to fulfil its Mandate of harmonising Standards and Conformity Assessment to reduce Technical Barriers to Trade and promote Intra-African and global Trade, Dr Nsengimana has demonstrated unrivalled and higher success at all key programmes of the Organisation, given his thorough understanding of the challenges of Technical Barriers to Trade issues in Africa and in World Trading systems, based on his wide knowledge of the World Trade Organisation TBTs Agreement (WTO TBT Agreement),. His demonstrated primary strength in the delivery of ARSO mandate is his visionary leadership with a deeper understanding of the letter and intent of the African Integration, Industrialisation and Transformation Agenda; the main African key blueprints of Lagos Plan of Action, Abuja Treaty and the African Agenda 2063, the African we Want.